SOLUTIONS: Residential solar heating is catching on

By Huck Fairman
   Echewing worry over the Mayan apocalypse, many New Jersey residents are taking matters into their own hands, saving money and reducing their carbon foot prints, so there won’t be anything like an environmental apocalypse.
   Families, businesses, and institutions have been adopting cheaper and greener energy systems. Indeed, Wikipedia reports that New Jersey is second nationally in total number of homes and businesses that have solar panels installed.
   Here are two brief stories of residents who have made the switch. The stories of business and institutions that have changed over will follow in the next column.
   Hedy DiSimoni, a Princeton planning analyst for a manufacturer, wanted to renovate the house she and her two daughters live in. One of her reasons for doing so was to lower her energy bills by making the house tighter and possibly by changing energy systems.
   Having heard of the possible benefits of solar power, she began calling contractors who install the panels. She wanted to hear not only their overall price but what services they included, such as applying for approval to the state and township and yearly maintenance. She notes that it is important not only to shop around for the right installer but also to make sure the installer uses the best solar panels.
   Once she made her decision, she found that the approval process, handled by the contractor, took longer than anticipated, but with its completion, the installation itself went smoothly and quickly. The average state-wide installation cost is $40,000, but the federal tax credit (of 30 percent) reduces that by $12,000. And from her energy savings, the state’s energy upgrade rebate, and with the state’s Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SRECs,) she can expect to meet the average payback period of 3.8 years for a 6.3 kilowatt system, the largest permissible size.
   (One SREC certificate is earned for every 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity generated, and those certificates can be sold directly or through an intermediary back to electricity suppliers, primarily utility companies. The selling price varies widely depending on demand and supply.)
   Interest-free loans for this upgrade are also available from the NJ Clean Energy Program, with payback due in 10 years. She pointed out that the township will continue to inspect her system two to three times a year, primarily the metering, while her installer will continue to provide yearly maintenance.
   Her goal in installing the solar panels has been reached; she has substantially reduced her electricity bill, and the SRECs offer further income to offset the remaining cost.
   William Wolfe, a Princeton architect who has designed or co-designed many local residential, commercial and institutional buildings, including his own handsome borough home, first became intrigued by solar heating as a Princeton University undergraduate taking a drawing course that investigated the effects of sun and shadow on buildings.
   Passive solar heating and the shading of windows by overhangs were two of those effects that he eventually incorporated in his designs. He went on to earn his master’s in architecture at the university, then worked for a local design firm before forming his own partnership.
   More recently he has concentrated on residential projects. (He points out that the basic photovoltaic technology was developed right here at the former RCA complex in Princeton Junction for the space program.) His first step for clients is to determine what insulation and sealing improvements would make the house more energy efficient and, if necessary, to design possible structural changes toward that end.
   Following those steps, he will design and have installed a solar panel array. For his own house, he designed and had installed an array, but then added geothermal heating. As a result, his energy consumption from PSE&G nets out close to zero. In the coldest weather he buys electricity, but during the rest of the year, he sells his excess back to the utility, which gives him credits to be applied against his usage.
   His total energy expenditure averages, at most, a couple of hundred dollars per year. In addition, the energy he generates also provides him with, on average, 12 SRECs a year which, again, are auctioned through an intermediary (or broker) back to the electrical suppliers. These sales easily exceed his minimal energy costs.
   Wolfe notes that it’s important for those interested to understand that while a south facing roof will be most efficient in collecting sunlight, current panel technology enables them to collect solar energy even when off-line, that is, facing southwest for southeast. He adds that panels also pick up reflected light from other surfaces. In fact some solar installations use large, sun-tracking mirrors to focus sunlight onto panels.
   There is a website, Solar Angle Caculators, that can provide an idea of how much energy a solar panel installation could produce. To put these individual systems in a national context, Wolfe points out that buildings consume, through heating and cooling, 40 percent of the energy used in this country, and produce 40 percent of the CO2.
   In a typical home, 46 percent of the energy used is for space heating, while 14 percent is used for water heating. In the Northeast region of the country, these percentages are higher.
   Locally, everyone I have spoken with voices enthusiasm over their decision and investment. Not only have they reduced monthly expenditures on heating and cooling their homes, but the remainder of their installation costs, that portion not covered by tax credits and rebates, can be paid off, over varying times, by energy savings and the SRECs. And, as all these new owners mention, they are helping reduce CO2 emissions through reduced consumption of fossil fuels.
   Huck Fairman is a local writer who in the course of researching another project was confronted by the overwhelming evidence that we are changing the earth’s environment. And that will affect life as we have known it. He hopes to present the many good local responses to this situation that are already under way.